Check your Range of Motion

Here is a great tip for those of you who don’t tend to swing a club when the snow is on the ground… Stretch! If it’s been a while since the last time you took a full backswing having your shoulders make a full 90 degree turn and your hips coming along for about half of that, then you might be surprised to see how stiff and/or rigid you may have become. It is critical for your golf swing as well as a happy life in general to stretch. Try this… take a broom handle, hockey stick or even your ‘driver’ and while still hanging on near either end put the center up over your head and rest it on your shoulders (not the neck please) if you can’t get it there then you are tight in the shoulders and we already know that you need to do more stretching on a regular basis and increase your range of motion. If you managed to get your broom handle up over your head and on your shoulders, try turning into your back swing keeping your feet about shoulder width apart and flat on the ground and see how far you can ‘comfortably’ turn your shoulders. Don’t hurt yourself and stop when you feel your body saying ‘that’s far enough’ and measure how far you are able to rotate your shoulders. If you are short of a 90 degree shoulder turn then you need to do more stretching. Now go ahead and turn into a full finish position and hold a well balanced finish. That’s ‘one’… now repeat often on a daily basis and you will be miles ahead when the season starts again.